Grants, Awards & Fellowships
One way the Chapel supports students and the wider Duke community in bridging faith and learning is by offering grants, awards, and fellowships for purposes ranging from community service to mission trips to training in the arts.
For some awards only Duke undergraduate students are eligible; other awards are open to other members of the Duke community. See below for a list of available grants and awards.
C. Eric Lincoln Fellowship
Eligibility: Duke students
Application deadline: November 30, 2021
The C. Eric Lincoln Fellowship is a semester-long program that 1) provides funding to an undergraduate student for a sacred art project and 2) invites the fellow to broaden the reach of artistic expression at the Duke University Chapel. Applicants must be active students at Duke in good standing. The fellowship runs the length of the spring semester. The Lincoln Fellow is expected to produce a visual art exhibit to be displayed in Duke Chapel near the end of the spring semester.
Chapel Scholars
Eligibility: Duke undergraduate students
Application deadline: Rolling
Chapel Scholars provides opportunities for students to hear and respond to God’s call for their lives on campus, in Durham, and beyond, through study, counsel, service, artistic expression, and community. Among the many students who connect with the Chapel each year, a select group of Chapel Scholars displays a unique commitment to discerning how to connect their talents and passions to the world’s deepest needs. Chapel Scholars is an ecumenical Christian program, which means that participating students come from a wide range of Christian traditions. Many Chapel Scholar students also participate in other Religious Life groups, and are encouraged to foster a sense of cooperation and hospitality across ministry groups.
Chapel Scholars Mission Funding
Each year students who are involved in the Chapel Scholars program are eligible for up to $750 per year for mission and service trips over Fall, Winter, and Spring breaks.
Hall Award
Eligibility: Duke undergraduate students
Application deadline: May 6, 2022
The Betty and Bob Hall Award was instituted in 2007 by trustee-emeritus A. Morris Williams, Jr. (Trinity 1962; Graduate School 1963) and his wife Ruth Whitmore Williams (Woman's College 1963) to support Duke University students’ participation in Christian-related service projects. Mr. and Mrs. Williams set up the endowment in honor of the parents of Sara Hall Brandaleone (WC 1965), whom they greatly admired. Sara and Bruce Brandaleone joined Mr. and Mrs. Williams in funding the endowment. Thanks to an endowment established by the friends of Bob and Betty Hall, the Chapel offers an annual award to a student doing Christian service work during the summer. Applications in the form of an essay between 750 and 1,000 words that addresses the summer work and its relationship to the student’s faith expression. The application packet should also include a detailed budget. Students can be awarded up to $3,000. Students should receive notification about their application around mid to late April.
Humanitarian Service Award
Eligibility: Anyone with a Duke affiliation
Application deadline: September 2, 2022
The Chapel’s Humanitarian Service Award aims to recognize and lift up individuals who have demonstrated both a long-term commitment to serving others and a lifestyle marked by simplicity. The recipient of the award is honored with a grant of up to $3,000 given to the nonprofit they designate. The award has its roots in a relationship between two Duke professors. In 1990, religion professor, sociologist and United Methodist minister C. Eric Lincoln started the Humanitarian Service Award endowment to honor Dr. George R. Parkerson, Jr. former chairman of the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Duke’s School of Medicine. By establishing this endowment, Dr. Lincoln sought to recognize Dr. Parkerson’s “caring love and concern for humanity” and to encourage others to do the same. Both Parkerson and Lincoln have exemplified lives in service of others. Dr. Lincoln’s life was dedicated to service through reconciliation, hospitality, care, mentoring, and ecumenism. Throughout his career, Dr. Parkerson’s concern for humanity has been revealed in his work in family medicine and as he has helped his students “see life whole.” Read about recent recipients of the award:
- 2021: Duke Chapel Honors Duke Police Staff Member with Award for Service in the Community
- 2020: Duke Chapel Recognizes Two Community Leaders for Humanitarian Service
- 2019: Community Leaders Jones, Belcher Receive Service Award
- 2018: Barber, Langley Receive 2018 Humanitarian Service Award
- 2017: Duke Chapel Service Award Goes To 2 Durham Community Leaders
- 2016: Rev. Kevin Baker Receives Humanitarian Service Award
- Nominate or apply
Organ Scholars
Application deadline: Rolling
With its world-class organs, excellent choirs, and a tradition of fine sacred music, the Chapel boasts a treasure of resources found in no other educational institution in the country. As stewards of this heritage, Chapel Music has the responsibility to nurture, to teach, and to worship God using all these assets and all of the talents of its staff. To ensure Duke Chapel's great musical traditions for the future, the Organ Scholars program was created in 2015.
PathWays Fellowship
Eligibility: Recent Duke graduates
Application deadline: February 18, 2022
Bridging faith and learning does not stop with graduation.The PathWays Fellowship not only gives recent alumni the tools they need to discern their vocational and spiritual direction, but it also gives them opportunities for exploration, leadership, mentorship, service, and formation deeply rooted in the local community and their Christian traditions. This is a one-year residential discernment program designed specifically for recent Duke graduates.
Religious Life Group Funding
Eligibility: Duke Religious Life staff members
Application deadline: Rolling
Applications are made by Religious Life Staff members on behalf of their group. The funds are to be used in support of the mission and goals of the group. This funding is not intended to fund whole programs or as a guaranteed piece of any group’s budget. The fund is available to any program recognized by the office of Religious Life. Groups without a Religious Life staff person may seek approval from the Director of Religious Life.
Religious Life Mission Trip Funding
As designee of the Chapel dean, the Religious Life Staff Mission Funding Committee is responsible for reviewing applications for religious life mission funds. Applications submitted on-time will be given a thorough review. All trips must meet at least one of the following by being a sign of God’s love in the world by: sharing the Good News in word and/or deed; establishing respectful relationships with the group or organization engaged by the mission; or responding to human need and working to alleviate suffering.
Research Opportunities
Eligibility: Duke undergraduate and graduate students
Application deadline: See below
The Chapel partners with other campus departments and units on research projects related to the Duke Chapel Recordings digital archives. Students have been part of these team research projects:
- When I Was a Stranger: Immigration, Preaching and Religious Imagination (2020-2021), Bass Connections
- #MyVoiceMyBody: Minoritized Bodies in the Pulpit at Duke Chapel (2019-2020), Bass Connections
- #MyVoiceMyBody: Minoritized Bodies in the Pulpit at Duke Chapel (Summer 2019), Story+
Student Advisory Board
Eligibility: Duke undergraduate and graduate students
The Chapel’s Student Advisory Board is a group of students created to help keep the Chapel connected to the heart, mind, and voice of the student body. This board will empower Duke students to inform and shape how Duke Chapel will serve the spiritual and religious needs of Duke students as the Chapel seeks to nurture and embody the intellectual, ethical, and spiritual lives of students. This board is composed of undergraduate and graduate students from a variety of religious and spiritual traditions.
Student Preacher
Application deadline: January 31, 2022
Each spring, one Duke undergraduate student is selected to preach in the Duke Chapel Sunday Morning worship service at 11:00 a.m. All undergraduate students are welcome to apply. Sermons should be based upon one or more of the lectionary scripture texts for that Sunday and should be on a topic deemed appropriate to the worship context. The sermon should be eighteen to twenty minutes in length, which is approximately 2200 words. The manuscript should not contain the name of the student submitting the sermon until the final page of the document. Basic criteria for selection include: relevance of the sermon to Scripture passage/s, quality of the sermon draft, and the appropriateness of the sermon’s subject matter for a Chapel service. The selection process may involve finalists delivering their sermon to the selection committee.